


The Color of the Sea

by Kebs



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry
Genre: Egg Angst, Fix-It, Gen, Other, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26764708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kebs/pseuds/Kebs
Summary: Good morning. I hope you have found respite in these dire circumstances.I’m sorry to say no new games have been prepared for you.Still, a new perspective on an old game can be worthwhile.Perhaps this will provide you some perspective as well?The difficulty level is unchanged.Only witches can understand a Witch.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	The Color of the Sea

"...After all, someone doesn't like it when you drink tea with me, right?"

"Huh?" 

Kanon’s arm moved before he could think. With lightning fast reflexes, he caught the teaspoon Beatrice flung at his head. He stepped out of his hiding place with a grimace that spoke both distrust and defeat. He stared silently at the witch, who met his steely gaze with a playful sneer.

"Do not worry. Our tea party is over now, Kanon." Beatrice tapped her pipe upon the tea cup set at her side of the table, dissipating it into a shower of gold butterflies. She tapped each part of the tea set in turn, humming a self-satisfied sort of melody and cleaning up the splendid tea party she had prepared for herself and Shannon in a not-too-showy manner.

Paying no mind to the magic spectacle taking place at her side, Shannon looked concernedly at Kanon. "How long were you there?” she asked. “If you had called to us, I'd have poured you some tea too…" Kanon’s eyes stayed fixed on the Golden Witch, seemingly ignoring his sister’s words. The witch’s sneer grew as she dissolved the wrought-iron table between her and Shannon and, standing with the grace of a witch who had lived a thousand years, approached the too-stiff Kanon. Beatrice closed in on Kanon, raised her arm, and… snatched the teaspoon out of Kanon’s hand.

"I imagine that you didn't want to interrupt a pair of women talking, right?" Beatrice cackled. She pinched the silver teaspoon, which transformed into a single golden butterfly resting on her finger. Kanon’s face, a well-practiced mask, cracked and darkened almost imperceptibly. Satisfied, Beatrice sauntered back towards Shannon. She tapped her own chair and Shannon’s with her pipe, completing her clean up. She wished Shannon farewell, asking her to tell her more about her budding relationship with George the next time they met. With a wry laugh, Beatrice herself dissolved into a brilliant gold leaf, then into thin air.

“…Nee-san, didn’t I tell you that you shouldn’t hang around with her?”

Kanon admonished his adoptive sister’s naivety. From the moment Beatrice had first shown herself to both of them, Kanon had been far more distrusting of the witch’s intentions. Shannon, however, had placed an amount of trust in the witch and had carried out a small favor for her. In return, the witch had granted her a golden brooch, a magical item said to have the power to join those who are in love. The two had become closer as a result, and even began to enjoy the other’s company from time to time. Kanon didn’t like it. To him, the being known as Beatrice was nothing more than a troublemaker who sought to disrupt his sister’s life by tempting her down a road with no happy end. As Shannon tried to convince Kanon to respect Beatrice, Kanon pushed against Shannon’s trust of the witch.

"That person isn't human,” said Kanon. We don't know what she's thinking. You mustn't trust her. And we aren't humans either, Nee-san. We are furniture. Even if we receive names and are treated as humans, that won't change how we were born." Shannon bit her lip and hung her head. Kanon’s brow furrowed. He didn’t like hurting his sister like this, but he knew it had to be done. For either of them to forget their station as furniture, as those who are less than human, who can neither love nor be loved, would be tantamount to-

"I am not… furniture." 

Almost a whisper, Shannon’s words cut into Kanon. He tried to pull her back into reality, telling her she was just pretending to be human. Shannon shook her head.

"I… am not furniture. I'm human…!" 

Again Shannon’s words, louder and firmer this time, cut across Kanon’s chest. He stuffed the pain which only he could feel down, and replied in his splintering tone that she is mistaken, that she is furniture, and that she mustn’t, mustn’t believe the words of that witch! Shannon bore Kanon’s protests and gently shut her eyes. She spoke in a quiet, determined manner that Kanon had rarely heard before.  
She said that if they could replace that part of themselves, if they could gain that single element of the world that Beatrice has taught her of, they could become human. Kanon’s eyes burned. His throat ached. He turned away from his sister and squeaked out another denial. How could she accept that witch’s words? How could he accept her words? A young woman like her, couldn’t understand…

"…You can too, Kanon-kun. You can become a normal human." 

Shannon’s words dug into Kanon’s chest like a stake. He threw off the hand that had tenderly touched his arm and brought his hands up to that wound. That wound, that only he could feel, screamed the falseness of Shannon’s words louder than he ever could. She could never know how her words hurt him. How that belief, that blind faith available only to a woman, cut and barbed and burned him more than any torture a witch could dream up. Kanon weakly told Shannon to stop, but Shannon continued on talking about the witch. With a start, and an anger Kanon didn’t even know he possessed, he cut her off.

“I said stop, Nee-san! How could you understand? You say you have become human? That if I can attain that single element, that I can become human? Liar! Maybe you can become human. Maybe you are human! But someone like me could never do that! Someone like me, in this wretched body I was given, can never become human! I am furniture! I cannot love, nor can I be loved! You are a beautiful young woman, who has gained the love of someone who acknowledges you! But someone like me… someone like me…! I can never…”

Hot tears poured from Kanon’s eyes. His shoulders heaved. He tried to wipe the tears on his sleeve, but no matter how many tears he wiped away, more and more took their place. His legs buckled, and he found himself on his hands and knees, tears staining the sand beneath him. He dug his fingers into the sand, as if he was trying to grab it, but the coarse, loose grains just slipped between his fingers. He cried. He cried and cried.

Kanon felt the presence of someone close by, then felt them lay their hand on his back. He looked up and through puffy, red eyes saw his sister kneeling beside him, her head barely blotting out the pale light of the cloudy day. On her face was an expression of equal parts tenderness, understanding, and repentance. Kanon was too tired from crying to push her off, so he reluctantly accepted her presence.

“Kanon-k- … Kanon. I should have realized what I was saying. I’m sorry.”

“Nee-san…” Kanon’s shuddering breaths calmed somewhat. Shannon pulled him up onto his knees, which he didn’t resist. Kanon wiped his face with the heel of his hand, brushing away his tears  
but spread gritty sand across his cheeks in the process. Shannon softly swished the sand off Kanon’s face herself.

“Kanon. Listen to me. Great magic is possible in this world. With that single element, even furniture like us can become human. You do not believe that you can become human. But, I do. I know that one day, even you can become human.” Kanon’s downturned eyes met Shannon’s. A glittering intensity shone behind her pupils, catching Kanon off guard. Shannon squeezed her sibling’s hands. “Even someone like you.”

Shannon reached into a pocket in her dress. “Kanon, would you shut your eyes for a moment? And stick out your hand.” Mostly recovered, Kanon did as he was told. He felt Shannon press something delicate into his hand. When he opened his eyes, he saw it was the magic brooch Shannon had received from Beatrice. That golden butterfly-shaped trinket somehow glittered in the overcast sun.  
Kanon opened his mouth, but Shannon spoke before he could.

“This is the gift Beatrice-sama gave me. However, when she gave it to me, it became mine. So think of it as me and treat it with respect, okay?” Kanon thought about fighting for a brief moment, but quickly relented when he saw that look in his sister’s face. Shannon continued, “This charm holds true magical power. Though it was given to me for the purpose of binding George-sama and I together, its power is much more vast than that single purpose. I believe that it can also grant your wish, Kanon. I’m sure of it.”

Shannon closed Kanon’s hand around the brooch and pushed it back to him. Though he struggled to accept any part of that witch’s magic, he knew he could not throw out something entrusted to him so carefully by his beloved sister. He muttered something about not falling to the witch’s power as he shoved it into his pocket. Shannon smiled (or was it a small giggle?) and looked away from Kanon, then point out towards something. Kanon followed her finger and saw the vastness of the sea, and the horizon beyond it.

“Kanon, what color does the sea look to you?” Shannon asked, still looking out towards the horizon.

Kanon grasped at straws for a moment, trying to divine the intent behind his sister’s words. Beneath the cloudy, darkening sky, the ocean seemed bland and uninteresting. After failing to come up with any deeper meaning, he gave up and answered directly. “…It's a vague, dark-gray color. So what?"

Shannon’s gaze didn’t falter. She looked out on the foamy waves lapping the shore of the island, the gentle churn of its deep waters, and the unseeable movements of the far reaches, beyond human sight, and smiled. “It looks deep blue to me.”

Kanon grimaced slightly as that now familiar anger bubbled inside him. Then Shannon turned back towards him, and said plainly, “I’m sure one day, you will see that deep blue ocean too, my beloved ******, Kanon-****.”

Kanon’s face lit up a brilliant bright red. His eyes scattered, unable to hold Shannon’s kind gaze any longer. Most peculiarly, at the corner of Kanon’s lips, you could almost see something like a smile trying to form. For her part, Shannon simply smiled, enjoying being on the other side of this sort of exchange. Yes, Kanon was definitely very cute like this.

Shannon gently asked Kanon when his afternoon shift was start, at which Kanon immediately recovered from his flustered state and sprang up onto his feet. He hurriedly brushed off the sand off the knees of his pants, and wiped as much off his face as he could. He asked if Shannon would be coming with him, but she said she’d like to spend the remainder of her break by the sea. Kanon dashed off with plenty of time to spare, worried that the Madam might notice if he began his shift out of breath. Shannon watched him go from her place on the beach, waving as his form disappeared up the trail to the mansion.

Alone on the beach, Sayo looked out on that sea. That sea that surrounded this island she called home, that sea that separated her from her beloved, that sea whose color only deepened the more she looked. In the presence of that sea, she placed her hand on her chest, and sighed.

**Author's Note:**

> _heyo! kebs here. thanks for reading what i guess is the first chapter of another trans fix-it(ish) fic. look, i know what i like, ok?_
> 
> _in case you haven't gathered yet, this fic will be a retelling of sorts of the game from episode 2. i'd like to keep this to a few key scenes, with maybe a few embellishments here and there, and keep things as close canon (lol) as possible. you will see text that is straight out the novel here. thats for one very simple reason: im doing this for fun and i can do whatever i want! also i think its kinda cool. i hope you enjoy what you find!_
> 
> _i think this goes without saying, but let me be very clear: the events of this game take place within beatrice's sealed catbox. i'll ask you to respect that catbox and, more directly, those who have yet to grasp the fullness the witch's illusion in the comments. if you've made it this far, surely you understand, right?_
> 
> _you can follow me @[my tumblr](http://daihenshin.tumblr.com), if you'd like._


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